State inspectors hamstrung by secrecy, panel told

Illinois' ethics laws allow for too much secrecy and they hamstring state inspectors who are responsible for uncovering government corruption, a legislative committee was told Tuesday.

Adriana Colindres

Illinois' ethics laws allow for too much secrecy and they hamstring state inspectors who are responsible for uncovering government corruption, a legislative committee was told Tuesday.

Witnesses at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Government Reform said state law should be rewritten to give inspectors greater powers over what they can investigate and to require more public disclosure about wrongdoing.

The committee, created by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, is spending the next several weeks studying ways to clean up government. Tuesday's meeting was its second on the topic of open government.

James Wright, executive inspector general for agencies under the governor's office, told the bipartisan panel that he and other inspectors should be permitted to look into anonymously filed complaints of corruption. Under existing state law, an inspector general may not follow up on anonymous reports.

The law also should be revised to let inspectors begin investigations on their own initiative, Wright said. Investigations presently may not be "self-initiated," he said, adding that he would have no authority to act if he personally saw a state worker looking at pornography on a computer while at work.

Mary Anderson, a former deputy inspector general, said current ethics laws pave the way for a "hyperconfidential system" in which the public and state lawmakers have no idea about the outcome of corruption investigations.

Inspectors "are completely undermined and weakened when they cannot make the results of their investigations public," she said. "By keeping the results of these investigations secret, wrongdoers are allowed to continue on with their corrupt behavior without consequences."

Anderson recommended that all final investigation reports, even if they ultimately find no evidence of wrongdoing, should be disclosed to the public. The names of accused individuals should be included only if there is wrongdoing, she said.

Greater transparency, including disclosure of reports, would "begin to restore shattered public confidence in our state government," said Shawn Denney, chairman of the Executive Ethics Commission.

Turow, the commission's former chairman, said state law also should impose limits on campaign contributions. The state's Gift Ban Act often prohibits rank-and-file state employees from accepting items such as free tickets to sporting events, yet politicians are legally able to accept campaign contributions of any size, he said.

Without contribution limits, "then we can expect cynicism and disappointment to continue to pervade the work force in the state of Illinois," Turow added.

Campaign finance is one of the topics still to be addressed by the Committee on Government Reform. The panel's next meeting will be at 9 a.m. March 10 in Room 114 of the Illinois State Capitol. A previously announced March 3 meeting was called off because of scheduling problems, officials said.

The committee's proceedings are broadcast live on the Internet at the General Assembly's Web site: www.ilga.gov. Documents from the committee's hearings are also posted on the site.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.